The children brisked up and obeyed Regie's orders by grinning from ear to ear, with the exception of baby Millie, whom neither petting nor teasing could coax into so much as the suggestion of a smile. This having your picture taken still seemed to her an uncanny and perilous proceeding.
“Say, Rex!” called Nan, in an anxious tone, “the baby won't look cheerful. I can't make her smile, no matter what I do.” H ere was a real difficulty! Rex walked over to the boat to give the matter his personal attention.
“Perhaps it's too young a baby to understand that she isn't going to be drowned,” suggested Madge, who was really quite experienced in the matter of babies, having had almost entire charge of Millie from her birth.
“Why, of course she is,” Nan replied, blaming herself for not having thought of this way of solving the problem; “she's hungry and cold still, and she shouldn't smile.”
So little Miss Millie's downheartedness proved no obstacle after all, and Regie soon announced that picture number two was taken. Pell mell the children scrambled out of the boat and hurried back to the camera.
“Let's see it, Rex.”
“Is it good?” were their exclamations all at once.
“Which is the best?”
“Why, I can't tell you yet,” answered Regie, out of patience with such ignorance; “don't you know I have to take the plates home before you can tell a thing about them, and develop them?”
“Develop?” said Jim Croxson, not having the remotest idea what the word might mean; “develop your grandmother! It's my opinion if a fellow had taken a picture he'd be glad enough to show it. I don't believe you can take 'em at all, and there's no use in wasting any more time in this tomfoolery. Come, Croxsies, let's travel home and scare up something to eat.”